Wernher

New Dawn of Civilizations

Google doc, I write a line, you write a line, we slowly make a conversation between our two characters with small lines and post it when its done?

New Dawn of Civilizations

@TruckKun

Do you want to make a collab in a google doc or something?

Or just gloss over things in our posts?

Lancer [Mechs, Magic, and Intrigue]

The Indomitus - Mess Hall with Aria Dvalin

The Baron straightened his back as he reached for his mug of synth coffee and raised it to his lips. "An officer does not advise his subordinates Lieutenant Dvalin, he orders them. Remember that for when you have subordinates of your own." He said before taking a sip. The warm liquid seem to mellow him out and a faint smile showed as he lowered the mug. "This is why I asked for permission. Do not consider this an officer-subordinate talk."

He licked his lips as he joined his hands in front of him. "Do you know what made me the big war hero I am today? That made me go from street urchin on earth to a Baron? Three things." He raised his hand. "The battle of Rantemario where I managed to be a one day double-ace." You needed 5 kills to be an ace, so 10 kills in one battle. He raised a finger. "The Assault on Geiersburg Fortress where I was first to breech the Command core and the battle of Amritsar where I managed to take down some mad Voidmage who was just about destroying our flagship with forbidden sorcery." He raised a second and a third finger, holding them up and shaking his hand slowly to put emphasis on this number.

"...Lieutenant, I have partaken in 79 major campaigns, hundreds of battles, spent thousands of days in active war zones." He said, still holding up these 3 fingers for a moment before finally lowering his hand. "I've known thousands of heroes. I've seen millions. It is extremely easy to be a hero, once. What allowed me to become so decorated and so distinguished that its embarrassing is that all day, every day, I went out there with one thing in mind: To do my job, come back alive and try to keep the people around me safe. And sometimes, once in a blue moon..." He leaned in, his grin becoming a big smile. "I saw an opportunity. And I took it."

He leaned back and shrugged. "What I mean to say Aria, is that there is no point in fighting like you have nothing left to lose. I know I fight like that, but you know why I'm here, everyone knows why I'm here. But you? You're young! Talented! Beautiful! If you feel like glory on the battlefield is the only way to reinstate your name, fine- but you miss every chances you don't take, and you can't take any more chances if you're dead." His voice had became low and serious, the Baron then slowly leaned back against the rest of his seat.

He suddenly had a frown. "And yes that's about your fighting style, but on a lesser note, what's with the unarmored mech? I've looked at the stats of your mount and this thing looks like it's made out of paper. And then you have Sharlin's silly Phantom that's even worst or-or you have Titus's Hypo that's JUST armor? What do you kids have against a good medium mech?" Wilhelm asked with a confused smile as he scratched his head.

Lancer [Mechs, Magic, and Intrigue]

The Indomitus - Aside with Stader Volger

The Commander's amusement elicited a frown from the Captain. She thought she had a good grasp of the relationship here, but reading between the line didn't really work when dealing with the empire. It all became clear as he explained... And annoying. Mika rolled her eyes as she was told the difference between 'Imperial Intelligence' and 'the Imperial Intelligence Bureau'. When he finished his explanation, her face was a mix of derision and annoyance.

"Imperial Intelligence Bu- You know, stuff like THIS is exactly why every year, hundreds of thousands of core worlders chose to try their luck in the fringe. They actually had a poll and most independent miners prefer to deal with Joe Schmoe the local pirate lord than the Imperial Tax Office... or the Bureau for the Office of Taxation or whatever you call it."

She shrugged and gave a mocking salute to Stader.

"So hail to you, Commissar Stader! But you've been in combat so you know it doesn't work like that. When that cute twink called opportunity comes knocking, you have to grab him by the balls-" She mimicked a vulgar movement and maybe considered demonstrating it on Stader himself but held back. "-and squeeze before he gets away! We don't know what the next situation will look like! And so..."

She magnanimously spread her arms open as if to show a world of possibilities.

"...Why don't we make a deal? You wish to conserve your fighting strength to do what you must do should the time come, but considering you did that space walk earlier I'm assuming that also means you can't refuse the prince either when he orders you in the line of fire. Weeeell, I happen to have under my employ a bunch of psychopaths who are happy to do all the dying for us! Like, literally, pay is for the group so they make more the fewer of them survive, they're all high out of their mind, they don't give a shit. So, when a situation looks hot, I let you borrow my guys. Send them in the grinder first, let them draw in fire and trigger the ambushes so you and your guys do your thing. And in exchange, well... I work with you and you work with me."

She offered, a predatory smirk on her face as she extended a hand to shake on this deal.

"Plus, I think an expendable unit of mercenaries not specifically loyal to the empire and its principles can have... other use, in times of crisis."

The Indomitus - Mess Hall with Aria Dvalin

The Baron took his pills as he listened to the Lieutenant, punching his chest as he politely held back a cough to let her finish speaking. When her words changed from agreeing with the chorus constantly asking Wilhelm to stand down to giving her a chance, his prideful smile and stance softened. He placed his elbows on the table and joined his hand underneath his chin.

"Hm. You know, when I first read about you I thought you and I were similar. And in a way we are, we both seek to write a glorious history really. Only I seek a way to put in a final dot and you seek to write a first chapter, so in that way we are worlds apart."

His expression then turned into a frown.

"Lieutenant, your advice is noted and while I shan't promise anything, I will try to leave some flowers as I believe you deserve them. If I may though, I would like to raise a concern of mine. Regarding you and your... style so to speak. May I?"

Lancer [Mechs, Magic, and Intrigue]

Thought I had time to finish all my replies tonight, but only had time for 1. I'll make the others tomorrow.

Also @Eisenhorn, tell me if you feel Tyche is stepping on your vibes and you'd OOC prefer her to backoff.

Lancer [Mechs, Magic, and Intrigue]

The Indomitus - Debriefing

"Yes. Why bother with the canticles? Why bother tightening all 6 nuts of a RBMK fuel rod when 3 does the job?" The robotic voice of Tyche replied, the derision audible despite the mechanical tone of her voice. "Manuals exist for a reason, technician. And while a critical situation can justify skipping steps, it is always important to return and finish the previous steps once the situation returns to normalcy. You are being accused not of failing to prioritize accurately during a combat situation, but of failing to follow proper procedures at all other times. You cannot state being able to follow the schedule if you did not complete all of the schedule."

For the first time, the cyborg bothered to turn her head toward Albert, still staring down at him with her chin up. "Those who's ships have been lost to the Void cannot lament about their lack of diligence in applying ALL steps of the manuals. That your limited mortal intellect is so focused on the mechanical that it cannot understand the importance of the spiritual is akin to denying a cancer diagnostic from your doctor because you feel fine at the moment. Statistics do not lie. Our ways are superior and guarantee several percentile points of efficiency this expedition will need."

She turned her head back to the Prince. "Comstar will not look favorably on such apostasy. Your majesty, technician Hartwig is mission essential, but non the less should be re-educated under Comstar supervision. It is the only way to insure the proper mechanical and spiritual function of the machines under your command."

Lunar Dome 10

"Ugh... Thank you Holiday. Please activate my morning routine." Isaac opened his eyes, groggy after a full 7 hours of sleep. As per his command, soft classical music began to play as the windows of his large bedroom untinted themselves. For a moment he closed his eyes again and groaned, wanting to say 5 more minutes. "...New log, Isaac Kaplan. Day uh... 55, 56? Thank you Holiday, day 56 without stimulants or sleep aid. Immediate impression on awakening: It does not seem to get easier. Will continue report after a morning shower and coffee." It seemed that as always, doctor Kaplan aimed to get that overtime as he, technically, punched in and began accumulating these hours. A man perfectly conditioned to the expression 'the boss makes a dollar and I make a dime, so I shit (and shower and eat and exercise) on company time.'

The groggy doctor let out an old man grumble as he got out of bed and into the shower, listening to the daily reports from Holiday.

"Hm, good, maybe the wider availability of alcohol will diminish the presence of low quality erzats products. Did we ever find who's responsible for this awful cider?"

"I see. Set blanket approval for Holo-Suite requests with an exception for pornographic content. I don't know if the sticky bits of floor last time is was caused by what kind of liquid content and I don't want to know."

"Yes, how gracious. Holiday, give me a reminder to request a custom departmental event if we meet production targets. No, the standard pizza dinner is probably overdone at this point. Gather ideas from other departments and make a presentation for me later."

"Blighted-"

Something happened to his beautiful grass? And a cow got sick?! This caused the doctor to frown and immediately cut his shower short after quickly finishing scrubbing.

"Delay breakfast, I'm going on the scene right now. Status of the other employees? Still having breakfast?! Bunch of lazy..."

He sighed as he moved to a stack of clean clothes on a chair and took a pair of shorts and matching black shirt with the Concern (TM) logo on them before starting to jog down the residential building and toward the blighted area, a small drone following him around as he got his exercise in and worked out his annoyment at his low performance crew. Was it so hard to have some work ethics and healthy habits? Actually it kinda was, Kaplan had the luxury of having a cerebral work where he could log his every thinking moment as billable work hours, meanwhile the rest had to do grunt work that left them with no time for anything else. The New England scientist however either didn't know or didn't care about that.

"Holiday, make sure the samples of grass are not genetically related to those of experiment C34, I am THIS close to publish my article in the Pan-Eurasian Journal of biology, if this is more than just oil poisoning it would be a disaster. Record that I have arrived at the blighted area and... oh god. Oh my goooood! My grass!"

The patch of grass looked... normal. Maybe a bit more yellow than the grass around it, if you squinted really hard? But Kaplan seemed about to have a panic attack as he ran up to it and went on his knees, getting his face almost shoved in the ground as he looked at every single blade of grass with deep concern on his unshaven face.

"Already evidence of toxiplasmosis underneath the leaf, leaf is... dull, slightly engorged... How can a cow not make the difference between this and healthy grass?! Holiday, patch me through the local coms."

"This is Doctor Kaplan speaking, move your asses people, we have a crisis on our hands! I'm at the disaster site and it's bad. Rossi, I need that cow monitored and stool, blood and bile samples sent to the lab every hour. Yingxue, find me if there is anything wrong with that bovine and Chivu, I don't know why you're not already analyzing that grass. Eel, Nielson, take 57104 with you to the sub levels and find me that leak. Cross will handle that mechanical issue with the harvester."

Kaplan got up from his knees and looked at the 'disaster site' with a frown. Damn it, this was a catastrophic start of the day!

New Dawn of Civilizations

Determine how he ended up in Western New York 2700 years ago and find a way to return to his wife and family in the 21st century.

Technically since its 2700 BC, its actually 4726 years ago. I dont know how recognizable the Seneca and others would be at this point and time. @Gunther

Lancer [Mechs, Magic, and Intrigue]

The Indomitus - Aside with Stader Volger

Ah, so this is what this was about? The captain's expression went from suspiciously guarded to dismissive in an instant, though the sudden armored finger in her chest did cause her to recoil and reach for where she would have a side arms, if she had been allowed to carry one.

Finally she let out a little croaking giggle. "You think this is what this was about? Please." She crossed her arms as she managed to somehow look up to Stader while making it seem like she was looking down. "I don't usually explain myself to jar heads like you Commander, but I'll make an exception. Did you ever read about the spanish conquest of the Americas or the British in India? Or if you want something less mythological the Conquest of the Kalindi sector or the Perseus Campaigns?"

She spoke with derision, obviously not expecting him to have a clue about them. She extended her arms to point at the whole ship around her. "A single capital ship. No expected reinforcements. What do you think we- what the Prince will achieve with this?" She let her arms fall down. It was a grand ship, probably the most powerful in the Procyon sector, but it was a single ship. "If you fight like the empire fights, you. will. lose. Not only that, but all your men will be dead anyways! How many did you lose to board counter board a cargo ship we're graciously letting go away for free? How many mission does that mean you and your guys have left before being combat ineffective? Meanwhile those extra 3 guys got us a frigate that once repaired and crewed by a convenient ally will be able to threaten a shipping lane and get two whole ships the same size distracted patrolling the sector to hunt it down. The only way we will win is by taking every advantage we can get, including that shitty Shrike."

Mika crossed her hands behind her back as a smirk crept up her face and she shrugged. "You call me a profit driven pirate? Fine. I won't deny it. But if I wanted to fight for scraps I wouldn't risk my life working for the most high profile individual to ever come to this sector. At the end of this, if I'm not dead, I'm going to be a solar Countess. Already have a system in mind. Imperial victory IS my way to wealth and riches which is why you will continue to follow my battle orders, as you so dutifully have until now."

Ganishka glared at the Commander as she started moving away, as if to state that she would not take any talk back, but suddenly she stopped in her motion and snorted, a cynical smile appearing on her face. "I mean. That's assuming that your orders are actually to help the prince achieve victory. Because that's right, you don't work for him like I do, you work for imperial intelligence. So, I mean, if you're under order to maintain combat effectiveness in order to do... something that the prince doesn't know of, maybe wouldn't approve of, then that's another thing entirely. Maybe this is a conversation we want to have with Cassian then?"

New Dawn of Civilizations

The plot thickens, as does the water of the local river.